Hindu Mythology and Sex Crime in India

A woman prayed in a candlelight vigil in Kolkata protesting the gangrape of a student in Delhi, Dec. 30, 2012.

The gang rape and death of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student in New Delhi in December drew global attention to sex crime in India. It also spurred British journalist Sunny Hundal to write a book.

Mr. Hundal, 35 years old, looks at the role Hindu mythology has played in shaping attitudes to women in India and examines the impact of urbanization and economic liberalization. He argues that these factors have come together to create an army of single, angry men.

“India Dishonoured: Behind a Nation's War on Women” will be released by Guardian Books on Thursday as an e-book.

The London-born author, who spent his childhood between the U.K. and India (his father was in the Indian Army), spoke with The Wall Street Journal's India Real Time about his book. Edited excerpts:

The Wall Street Journal: In your book, you look at how women are portrayed in the Hindu epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata. How has Hindu mythology shaped the way women are viewed and treated in India today?

Sunny Hundal: Some of the popular interpretations of Hindu mythology have very fixed views on how women should behave; things like being obedient and being a good housewife and mother. In the Ramayana, Ram is a model for how men should act and Sita is the model for women. Unfortunately, these texts play a part in perpetuating sexism and violence against women in India today.

I focused on Hindu mythology because 80% of Indians are Hindus and even non-Hindus are impacted by it. Other religions in India view women in a similar light; they are not allowed to be independent. In some ways, these attitudes are used to justify violence against women. They blame the woman by saying she didn't behave like Sita. If she did, she would be fine. I think these interpretations need to be challenged by Indians.

WSJ: The Delhi gang rape case was a watershed moment in India. Do you think it was also seminal in the global fight to end violence against women?

Sunny Hundal

Sunny Hundal.

Mr. Hundal: I wish it was a global watershed moment, but I don't think it was. I fully acknowledge that violence against women is a problem across the world, but I don't think there was much of an impact outside of India and it didn't really galvanize women in the U.K. In India, there have been other moments like this. There were protests in the 1970s and at other times, which have helped change attitudes and laws. The same happened this time. The December incident made the issue much more salient. The question now is how long will the momentum last?

WSJ: You say urbanization and economic liberalization has created a toxic mixture that exacerbates India's sex crime problem. How?

Mr. Hundal: In India, a sex-selection phenomenon has been in place since the 1980s, with men born during this period now at marriageable age. Then you've got urbanization since the 1990s where a lot of families and men have moved to cities to look for work…. People are much wealthier but at the same time there's pressure to produce sons as an heir, so educated, wealthy families are now more likely to have sex selection. All these factors are coming to play and creating this toxic mixture, which has turned violence against women into a bigger issue today.

WSJ: Why do you think most Western media narratives on India in recent years have ignored its sexual violence problem?

Mr. Hundal: The Western media likes easy narratives about other countries and the early narrative around India was always around the exotic - the snake charmers, that sort of stuff. And then it became much more about Bollywood followed by India as a future economic powerhouse. These narratives shift because the media are looking for new stories and new angles, and then suddenly in December, rape in India became an issue.

WSJ: In your book, you look at the rising number of ‘honor’ attacks against women in the U.K. Are you surprised at how common such crimes have become, particularly within the South Asian community?

Mr. Hundal: ‘Honor’ killings in the U.K. are getting worse. The first generation of South Asians immigrated to the U.K. in the 1960s and 1970s, and the second generation grew up in the 1980s and 1990s. So you have the second generation now coming of age and at the same time their parents maintain this traditional attitude on how women should behave. They're mentally still stuck in a village, they force their daughters into arranged marriages and are worried they are becoming too westernized. All these attitudes are still prevalent in the U.K. and are behind ‘honor’ killings. The statistics show there’s more and more cases being reported in the U.K. and it’s not just the South Asian community but also among other immigrant communities.

Mr. Hundal: Outside India, there are a lot of people with their heads in the sand who don't realize the scale of the problem, but still the issue has had an impact on India's economic development. Investors are taking note of what's happening and that's not good. Tourists are also choosing to holiday elsewhere. The government is more interested in investments, so I think business leaders of India need to step forward and say this is a serious problem and it is affecting not only how India is perceived overseas but development and growth. That's when I think the politicians will listen because that light bulb hasn't gone off in their heads yet.

Atish Patel is a London-born multimedia journalist based in Delhi. You can follow him on Twitter @atishpatel.